Prison and pot: Erker 'never imagined' this grand plan

By Jenni Grubbs

Times Staff Writer

Posted:
08/20/2014 01:00:00 AM MDT

The word never comes up a lot when Nick Erker talks about the situation he finds himself in lately.

"I never thought I was going to own a prison. I never thought I was going to be in the marijuana business," he said Monday. "Never in my wildest dreams" did these ideas seem to be something that would apply to his life.

But that's where he's at, trying to bring together the things he "never imagined" went together and turn the old High Plains Correctional Facility into a marijuana cultivation facility and retail recreational cannabis store in Brush.

But he faces an uphill battle, and he knows it.

Because the city of Brush has a ban on medicinal marijuana and a moratorium on recreational marijuana, he has to convince either the Brush City Council or a majority of voters to allow him to carry out his grand plan.

"A lot of people have told me they're happy," he said, "and if someone were going to do this, they're happy it's me."

It all started in summer 2013, with the idea of buying the old prison to use as warehouse and office space for Erker's other business ventures.

"As we got to running the numbers, we found out it would cost significantly more" to convert it for those uses, he said.

But that didn't stop him from buying the prison, this time not really knowing the exact purpose.

"I like to think that I think outside the box a lot," he said. "I felt that there was something there."

He closed on the prison purchase last March.

About a month later, someone's rumor would lead him to come up with his latest plan for the facility.

A friend sent Erker a text message talking about a rumor that Erker had wanted to buy the prison to grow pot "inside the fence."

At first, Erker just laughed.

But then, he started considering the notion.

"It was an interesting idea," he said.

Erker got his brother involved in researching that idea, running numbers for a potential business venture.

After discerning it might be feasible from a business perspective, he started talking with Brush city officials and Mayor Chuck Schonberger to find out what the process would be for getting the city's moratorium lifted.

The city officials, interested in finding out more after initially hearing about the opportunities for jobs and tax revenue, asked him to write a letter to the City Council asking them to review the moratorium.

Now, he finds himself having to convince not only the city officials and council members, but also the community both in Brush and around Morgan County.

He cites the numbers: potential for $500,000 in retail sales tax revenue, plus a tax refund from the state, and at least 31 jobs that would be created.

Erker also points to the amount of water the facility would use, which would be 80,000 gallons per month to grow 1,200 plants, compared with the 737,500 gallons per month in use that the prison averaged.

He also showed that the prison's entrance is well beyond the 1,000-foot mark from the Brush School District's main offices, with a pedestrian pathway (the legal standard) of more than 4,000 feet separating the facilities' entrances.

"We want to be sure that this product is administered in a way so that no one under 21 can access it," he said. "We want to encourage responsible consumption by legal adults over the age of 21."

He said he liked the idea of being able to provide "a level of regulation to (marijuana) so that you don't have to worry about someone growing it in their basement and selling it to kids."

Part of his mission is to help "eliminate a lot of the black market" for this drug.

"The city of Brush has a unique opportunity to regulate it and create an industry around it," Erker said. "I truly believe if you make it available and it's legal, you take the power away from the black market. It becomes no different than going to your neighborhood liquor store."

He pointed out that Brush could wind up being like Golden was at the end of Prohibition, with the legal creation of the Coors Brewing Co. that still exists today.

He just hopes Brush decides to follow him on this journey somewhere that only a six months ago he had never imagined he would take.